Background
Fortum Keski-Uusimaa is the district heating provider in the Southern Finnish cities of Järvenpää and Tuusula. District heating is the dominant source of heating in the Nordic countries, with a market share of > 90%. The asset comprises a district heating network of about 235 km, as well as one large CHP plant and about ten heat-only boilers in the two cities. Fortum’s divestment follows the overall strategy of the company of focusing on higher yield and more service-oriented businesses and reducing its holdings in core infra assets.
Process
VALOR was engaged as the exclusive financial advisor by the acquiring consortium, which comprised the leading Nordic infrastructure investor Infranode, the Finnish utility Vantaan Energia, and the Finnish pension fund KEVA. VALOR was responsible for providing a full suite buy-side advisory, including responsibility for financial modeling and valuation, process strategy and tactics, debt advisory, deal structuring, negotiations with the seller, due diligence coordination, and support in transaction documentation. The process started as a structured auction with a number of bidders, but during the binding offer stage, the consortium advised by VALOR was able to attain exclusivity until signing.
VALOR role and result
The transaction marked the first successfully executed significant post-Covid Nordic infrastructure transaction. It was also the largest Finnish infrastructure transaction of 2020 as of the August closing time. The acquisition offers unique value creation opportunities for the acquirers through a synergistic set-up with Vantaan Energia and the extensive Nordic infrastructure ownership experience of Infranode and KEVA. VALOR’s flexibility and commitment to its clients ensured that every workstream was successfully executed in a timely manner, and all the seller’s expectations were met. The transaction leveraged VALOR’s combination of sustainable energy sector knowledge with excellent M&A and process capabilities. We see this as a key strength of our firm.